Fair recommendations to be unveiled Tuesday

STOCKTON - Those who love the San Joaquin County Fair most aren't ready to give up on it.

Kevin Parrish

STOCKTON - Those who love the San Joaquin County Fair most aren't ready to give up on it.

Seven weeks and 10 committee meetings ago, the troubled fair entered into a deep self-evaluation and invited public involvement on how to be successful. The results of that soul-searching process will be revealed Tuesday night.

Dozens of county residents have been working to retool and re-craft the 153-year-old event since being told Sept. 23 by a Sacramento consultant that the fair's future is in their hands.

Since that date, committees on entertainment, marketing and exhibits have each met twice. An agriculture/livestock committee has met four times.

"I don't want to be presumptuous, but I'm hearing good commentary from all the groups," said Brian May, the consultant who once worked for Cal Expo. "People have excellent ideas. Some will work out, some will not."

May and Janet Covello, chief executive officer, have been encouraged on two fronts:

» The county's farm community wants to get more involved in organizing and presenting the annual livestock show.

» The fair, located at Airport Way and Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Boulevard, needs to draw more attendance from the communities beyond Stockton. The entertainment committee believes live performances are the best way to accomplish that.

"Those two ideas excite me the most," May said. "It's going to require effort on the part of residents to see that the fair survives."

Recent years have not been kind to the fair: a dramatic drop in attendance last June, a budget deficit, no cash reserves, an ever-shrinking staff and routine losses in revenue.

September's meeting was organized to pull the fair back from the brink.

"The fair has to stand on its own financially," May said. "Our challenge is how to put these ideas into motion."

There has been intense interest in the process. Both county Sheriff Steve Moore and county Administrator Monica Nino were routinely involved with the committees.

On Tuesday, the four committees will make their recommendations to the nine-member board of California's 2nd District Agricultural Association, which operates the fair.

The meeting is open to the public. The fair board will meet again Nov. 20 to discuss the ideas.

There will be no decisions at either meeting. The board is expected to meet in December to determine what changes to make.

The 2014 fair is scheduled to start June 15.

"The fair is in the gambling business," May said. "You put a program together that you think is in the best interests of the community - and hope people will come."